Not to be the harbinger of doom but we’re approaching a tipping point as far as the climate crisis is concerned.
Civilization, as we know it, is facing a huge threat – and we’re talking about mass displacements, food shortages, epidemics, etc. – if climate change isn’t addressed quickly.
However, the world seems to be carrying on as though there are no global implications if our planet crosses the Rubicon on the climate disaster that it currently faces.
Promises were made by world leaders at the recently concluded COP26 to reduce emissions in a bid to limit global warming to 1.5 °C.
While it is good to set targets and whatnot, the major focus should be on acting like it’s an emergency. Making action commitments and declarations are just mere words if they aren’t backed with concrete steps to quickly eliminate carbon emissions.
Eliminating emissions and removing the excess greenhouse gasses that are trapped in the atmosphere is the only way to restore a safe climate. How then can we restore a safe climate? We can do that by going on full emergency mode.
Let’s face it, 1.5°C as the threshold for preventing the disastrous effects of global warming can be very misleading. This is because emissions aren’t like vehicles that you could just hit the brakes and stop at 1.5.
1.5°C isn’t a magic number. As fossil fuel is burnt, the climate worsens, and recent events suggest that it will be worse than we are currently experiencing.
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly explains that global warming will cease when greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly reduced on a large scale.
The panel, however, does not see this happening new estimates show likely chances of crossing the global warming level of 1.5°C in the next decades.
Going on a full emergency mode will enable people to prioritize climate change and allocate their talents and resources to reduce it especially now that it is aggressively increasing with no signs of stopping.
We’re currently above 1°C warming and the resultant effect is the withering plants, floods, melting glaciers, rising heat waves, drought, wildfires, displacement, famine, and death. What would then be our fate if it keeps accelerating and we cross the 1.5°C threshold?
Recent projections believe the next five years are going to be unusually hot for most of the planet. As such, we need to eliminate emissions as quickly as possible and the only possible way we could achieve this is through the mobilization of national and global resources.
All hands need to be on deck to reach net-zero. Governments should begin the processes and implement policies geared at eliminating emissions, not reducing them
Finally, the fight isn’t for scientists and politicians but for every one of us. Climate change is here. Let us not underestimate it.
